| kitchen to tell Ma to make hot toddies
for him and his brother. Ma made the toddies and gave them to me to take
to Pa and Uncle. I slipped around behind the shed and drank the toddies.
I kept going back for more until Pa came out of the house to find what
was taking Ma so long with the toddies. Ma said, "Law,
Harrison, I've sent you three or four glasses already. I'll bet Fratus
drank the whiskey." After I drank the whiskey, I began to feel
so good I decided to go to the field where my brother, Willie, was
working. I told Willie I was going to take the team away from him and
show him how to plow. He became so angry with me that he took a limb to
me and sent me to bed to sleep it off.
THE OLD KITCHEN AND DINING ROOM The kitchen and dining room of our house was about seventy steps from the main house. It was about 20 X 30 feet, and all that was in it was a wood cook stove, a safe for dishes, a cook table and a dining table, which was about twelve feet long. There were ten of us kids, and we had a bench along one side of the table. We used this kitchen only in the summer. In the winter Ma would move back into the main house, which was composed of two rooms, each about 16 X 16 feet with a hall between them. There was also a small side room. Ma cooked on the fireplace all winter long. We grew most of our food on the farm, and what we had to buy was cheap. We didn't have much money, however, we could buy twenty pounds of sugar for $1.00, three pounds of coffee for 25 cents, and if we had to buy bacon it was 3 cents a pound. Dollars were very scarce! SCHOOL DAYS FOR THE FARM BOY We walked to school winter and summer, a distance of about two miles each day. Our school was a one room structure without screened doors or windows. Flies and gnats filled the room in the summer, and in the winter the children had to find and bring in wood for the heating stove. Each time a student missed two words in spelling class, he had to stay inside during
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